2008 July archive at Conceptualist.com, By Sahar Sarid

Loading Newer »

Less

Archive for July, 2008

Portfolio Help By Bido: The Rules Of The Game Are Changing

Published on July 30, 2008 in Bido/DNZoom and Domain Names. 6 Comments

We feel, like many others, there’s no need to fix something that isn’t broken. The flip side of course is there’s a definite need to fix broken things. The domain world, by all accounts (that is, if you are a portfolio owner), is broken. This is the birth of Portfolio Help and our initiative to fix things.

We believe domain parking has to evolve but for that to happen, we believe portfolio owners must evolve as well. You’ve done great for a while but last couple of years, the rules of the game have changed, economy has changed. Upstream providers and the global advertising industry are doing better than ever while you are suffering. Discussing this yesterday with a close friend, he said: “The easiest one to rob is the weakest link” and folks, believe it or not but we are the weakest link.

Over the years I learned the hard way no one is going to give you anything in life unless you do something about it. No one is going to help you until you start helping yourself. Nothing is going to change in your favor until you do something about it. If you feel like waiting, we wish you the best. But if you had enough of waiting, if you want things to change for the better, if you understand change first must occur in order to get new results, we’re here to help.

I’ll copy below few words from Portfolio Help. To learn more, just log to Bido and read the rest. If you are qualify to participate, that is, if your portfolio makes over USD10,000.00 per month, we want to hear from you.

Cheers,

Sahar

Over the past few years “Parking has to evolve!” has been the rallying cry for many domainers. But if that is ever to happen, portfolio owners will have to evolve as well.

Domain revenues, by all accounts, are spiraling downward. Revenue percentages are going down each year, not up. And to top it off, everyone is tired of moving their portfolios around because of promises of higher payouts, only to see those extra earnings dwindle after a few short weeks/months. Does this sound like you? We have a solution!

Did you know there are companies in the domain industry that may, in exceptional cases, offer you more than 100% revenue share for your domain traffic? Yes, that’s correct, 100% revenue share (or more) is not unattainable. The question then becomes, why would a company pay you as much or even more money than they themselves earn on your traffic?

The answers to the above question are simple, yet fairly unknown. A few of the reasons include:

* A shift in technology that allows for extra growth in a small timeframe
* The need for traffic volume to acquire a new upstream provider
* To negotiate better rates with an existing upstream provider
* Needing additional revenues to sell the company or bring the organization to an IPO
* To establish a long term contractual deal

Whatever the reason may be, it is not important. What is important is to identify the companies which have these needs and then to work out beneficial deals. Because of our experience and relationships in domains, we can work those deals. After all, we didn’t become one of the biggest privately held portfolio owners by working out bad deals. We know what it takes to make a portfolio owner successful. Now, after close to a decade in the domain business, we are putting our experience — our relationships — to work for you.

Hard At Work: Putting The Finishing Touches On Portfolio Help

Published on July 29, 2008 in Bido/DNZoom and Domain Names. 4 Comments

We’re going to have major updates on Bido today.

1. Expert area enhancements: The new enhancements include multiple tabs for experts, tabs which at release will include “About me”, “My feed” (RSS feed syndication of your blog, publication), and “My Stuff” which may include links to domains you may have for sale on Afternic, Sedo, etc.

2. Introduction of “PH”, better known as Portfolio Help.

We’re putting many years of close relationships and experience managing a multi million dollar portfolios to work for you. Below is a glimpse into what’s coming.

Edit: Portfolio Help is now live.

Have a great day,

Sahar

My View On NamingSchool.Com (Today’s Domain On Bido)

Published on July 27, 2008 in Domain Names. 6 Comments

A little disappointed by expert commentary today on Bido so I decided to chime in a little myself. Since it is required to log in to see the discussion option on Bido I will just copy it here for you. Comments as always are most welcome, highly appreciated!

Looking at the comments below I feel as many are addressing the domain at a face value proposition, as if it must be either a PPC domain or an obvious top category (finance, business, travel) in order to be worth something.

How many babies are born each day? How many parents are dealing with naming their babies every single day? How many brand owners need help defining their brands? Small owner businesses who are not familiar with naming and branding at all.

I see a lot of potential in the name however as most domains, it is more about one’s vision than the domain itself.

I feel this one is going to go really cheap, not due to quality but due to extremely narrow vision by many.

Cheers

Sahar

Edit: Closing price 11.00 $US)

Beyond The American Dream

Published on July 27, 2008 in Business and General. 18 Comments

(image source: Flickr)

What I’m going to write here may sound simple to you but truth be told, I believe most around the world don’t know it. If you find it enlightening, if you enjoy reading, pass to a friend. Hopefully this story will affect one person and if it does, I’ve done my job for the day!

About a year ago Ron Jackson of DNJournal told my story to the world, a rags to riches story, one you have heard many times by now of those who started with very little and achieved financial independence. What is financial independence then and is it the end of all means? I have a nice car although I hardly use it these days. I have a nice house although I spend most of my time in front of a 24 inch computer screen. I have a gym membership although I hardly ever use it. I have the option to jump on a private jet in a moment’s notice to have dinner in Vegas although I have yet to do it. Yes, it is well worth the effort to get to that level financially (don’t believe those who tell you it is not) however, there’s more to life than that, many times over!

My health for once isn’t as good as it once used to be, pre-computer days. Carpal tunnel is a thing of the past for me, been there many years ago and cannot use the mouse with right hand anymore. The many hours on the computer also took their toll on my body, neck injury for last 2-3 years that I’m still trying my best to cope with. To tell you it was all worth it would be a complete lie!

This story starts here, my neck injury. Last 2-3 years I tried just about anything money can buy, from gym time to massage therapists 2-3 times a week, to few chiropractors, x-rays, you name it. Nothing really helped me for a long time. About a month ago I visited yet another massage therapist and while we were talking, she asked me what am I doing to get better. I told her about the many therapists I’ve seen before her, the chiropractors, and various exercises I do at home. She looked at me, saying in her look as if I said nothing so far, and just said “You need to generate your own energy”. Now it may mean nothing to you but I never really thought about this little sentence before. Few short words, an idea that is life changing for me, and could be for millions of others worldwide!

I took these words to heart, the day after I went to the local bike shop and bought me a brand new bicycle. I decided anything 10 miles radius from my house I would use the bicycle instead of the car. Now as expected, most of where I’m going on a daily basis is within the distance which means, now I hardly use the car at all!

I started really slow, just back and forth to the closest coffee shops around (1 mile round trip), without really pushing hard or trying to go faster. A week later I felt like I should go a little further so I went to a a further coffee shop, about 5 miles round trip from my house. Still, not much but again, this helped me build further momentum and endurance and I went up to 10 miles trips, 12 miles, 15 miles, and today I completed some 26 miles round trip from my house for the first time. About a month after the day that changed my life.

During that trip today, a beautiful and sunny Sunday morning, riding famous A1A (Ocean BLVD), I looked with envy at all the other cyclists on the road (yes, those who fly by you and scream “on your left!!” to a point you almost fall). In envy? Yes. Because what they have is something I cannot buy no matter how much money I have. Sounds obvious isn’t it? But this is the real secret, the one many wealthy individuals try so hard to relate to many and still most don’t understand. We all heard of those who made it just to find out they are not happy, neither content, with their lives. What is it then those who have made it envy? what is it they really want once they achieved the American dream, financial wise? It is what you can achieve today, without any of the money they have. It is the things money can’t buy. It is to find somebody to love, it is to be healthy, it is to be happy, it is to be content.

It took me many years and countless hours on the computer, often north of 20 hours per day, to realize it. Don’t let this happen to you. While getting your financials together is important, it is not the most important thing in life. You can take my word for it or you can find it all when you achieve the American dream yourself. What you will find out is this: Beyond the American dream is the real dream, that is, the one money can’t buy, the one you can achieve today.

Have a great day!

Sahar

What Will Happen To Direct Navigation When The World Moves to Scanning Devices?

Published on July 26, 2008 in Domain Names. 19 Comments

Via P8TCH:

Think of it as a TinyURL you can wear. Each two-by-four-inch, velcro-backed twill p8tch has a Mysterious Commando Design on the top, and a QRCode on the bottom:

The QRCode on the p8tch contains a URL. If you scan the code with your iPhone, Mobile Safari will take you directly to that URL. Or, if it’s a Google Maps link, directly to the Google Maps app. Or, if it’s a YouTube link, it’ll show a movie. Cool, right?

We looked at this concept some two years ago and since we were never strong on mobile technology (just not our thing, yet!), we decided not to pursue. While I don’t believe this will change the nature of direct navigation I do think this is how people will surf the web in the near future (2-5 years). I always believed the more people learn to surf the more they learn to navigate on their own. I heard many times in the past that domain owners lose traffic to Google as many go to Google and type their URL’s there however, traffic leakage goes both ways. Google and previous search engines educated the masses to use keyword search, and much of our traffic is due to that as well.

The above link, now it may not mean much to you today but let’s go back to 1994. If you knew back then domain names are going to be the future of the web, what would you have done? And the question today, if you know scanning will be an integral part of the future web, what will you do?

Some food for thought.

Have a great weekend!

Sahar

New Service From Bido, Coming Soon

Published on July 25, 2008 in Bido/DNZoom and Domain Names. 1 Comment

Later today we plan on releasing a new service to the domain community. The service, dubbed internally as “PH”, will put our many years of experience in the domain industry, our relationships, to work for you.

We’re putting the final touches here as I write this.

Update: No “PH” today, likely Monday. Our team is out for the weekend and we did not finish what we had in mind just yet. Also come Monday there will be many upgrades to Bido especially for our existing experts. If you think what you see now is the best we can do for you, think again!

Stay tuned!

Sahar

SimplyStatic: Domain Portfolios vs. Ad Networks - What’s the difference?

Published on July 24, 2008 in Domain Names. 4 Comments

Via SimplyStatic:

…The advantage of Domain Clouds for domain portfolio owners is that very often the very nature of their domain name is what gives them their relevancy. Users end up at the site because they type a specific phrase into their browser bar, such as “healthaccess.com,” because they are looking for “access to health information” or because they are taken to that site as a result of performing a search on a search engine and the site being displayed in the results of that search.

Domains have tremendous value beyond the way most portfolio owners monetize them today, which is pay per click. As Madison Avenue continues to see the value of advertising online versus offline and as more users spend more hours on the Internet versus reading newspapers, watching TV, etc… (see the article “New York Times’ Profit, Ads Decline” by Russell Adams in the Wall Street Journal, Thursday July 24, 2008) the demand for relevant Internet advertising Real Estate will grow and therefore the demand for space on relevant Domain Clouds will grow as well. That demand will come from ad networks, agencies, clients themselves and more. The eyeballs that quality direct navigation domains can provide will have significantly more value in the future than they do today. You can see it happening already with the development of ad networks like Martha’s Circle, Glam, and more. These networks are nothing more than collections of domains that are similar in content and nature. So categorize your domains and develop your category leaders, because the value they have today is nothing compared to what they will be worth in the future.

Not that I agree with all that is said here however it is a good read exploring further the relationships of ad networks, Madison Avenue, and domain portfolio owners.

Enjoy,

Sahar

Rick Schwartz Sells Property.Com, Rumored a 8 Figure USD Value Deal

Published on July 23, 2008 in Domain Names. 10 Comments

Press release via Rick’s blog:

Foreclosure.com Founder, President and CEO, Brad Geisen, announced today that he has reached an agreement with “Domain King” Rick Schwartz to acquire the domain name “Property.com,” paving the way for his entry into a new market.
With Property.com Geisen intends to create a one-of-a-kind — and convenient — one-stop online real estate marketplace that is easy-to-use and navigate. The Web site will serve as an easy-accessible national real estate classified that is going to be free to all visitors, providing sellers, buyers and investors with a whole new concept of marketing and finding homes on the Web.

To those who remember Rick bought the domain about three years ago for USD 750,000.00.

Here’s how I see it: Some you win, some you lose, key is to win more than to lose. This one, from what I heard and know, is a BIG win.

Congratulations in place to Rick and Brad!

Sahar

Notice: Dickinson.Com Traffic Gets Bido Down, Our World Class Team Gets Site Up In Few Short Minutes

Published on July 22, 2008 in Bido/DNZoom. 4 Comments

So we’re still learning, what can we do? Site went down due to excess traffic. Site is back up, I’ll have more update on the whole thing later.

(edit: Closing price 12,000.00 $US)

———-Update———-

This is the email we sent out to all Bido members earlier today:

Dear All Bido.com Experts and Bidders,
This is to update you about the auction that is currently running, Dickinson.com. Due to an overwhelming response, we experienced some minor technical difficulties for approximately two minutes during the auction and have corrected the issue.

If you have not already done so, please refresh your screen and you will see that the auction is back to running smoothly again.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Kind Regards,

The Bido.com Auction House Team

As expected, record traffic and massive page “refreshes” by users during the live auction caused a little hiccup. While service went down for few minutes our team stayed focused and none of us really had any doubt we will be back in no time. At the end, things worked out great, we took few lessons from here, stuff that was hard to predict without really walking through it. At the end of the day we have advanced a stage further, made the system a little bit stronger, and learned that our team really deals with unexpected events in a professional, focused, and determine manner, better than anything we’ve ever seen before.

We will have some great news towards the end of the week, new complimentary service coming to Bido to help many in the domain business to do even better.

Stay tuned, and thanks in advance guys (and gals!) for all the support!!

Sahar

BIDO @ Targeted Traffic. What To Expect?

Published on July 18, 2008 in Bido/DNZoom and Domain Names. 13 Comments

As some of you may already know, Bido will participate at the next Targeted Traffic conference in New York City. While our friend Rick Latona says “Go Big or Go Home” in regard to his ideas, to tell the truth, none of us here at BIDO has any idea as of yet what we will do. We will think it over next week or two and come up with something, hopefully to exceed your expectations!

Ideas? please let us know!

Have a great day,

Sahar

P.S.

Today on Bido: ParkourWorld.com. While you may not be familiar with Parkour it is one of my favorite sports.. to watch!